AKA - Reasons To Be Cheerful Part Three
or NGSD
Hi Peeps, it has been a while since I published my last chapter of The Madmanās Diaries, the last being in the Blues Series though when I canāt recall.
Much has gone on in the last year and has had a dramatic impact on my playing and practice, and of course general engagement with the forum compared to the last decade or so !!
Some of you will recall that my wife suffered a life threatening virus this time last year and today marks the day she was rushed into the local ICU aka Reanimation here in France. Suffice to say 3 months later she returned home and her recovery has been slow and steady due to the TBI she suffered.
A year later we are sitting in the courtyard with my daughter and a new acquisition, to be revealed as we wind down the old verbal road.
Practice this year has been intermittent, with all good intentions but there have also been many things that needed doing in and to the house but I kept plodding on when I could,
Focus has been :
Triads ( on String Set 1 & 2 mainly) with practical application in 6 Song Studies covering different keys - a Roadcase Update may following if and when recorded.
Major and Minor Diagonal Pentatonics
Dom7 Arpeggios - with study exercises (12 bar melodies/etudes) in G A & E
Diagonal Arpeggios - Major 7, min7, Dom7, min7b5 and Dim
And applying the Triads to songs in my Songbook Playlists.
But once again all that has been put old hold !!
Oldtimers will remember my constant companion who appeared in many of my multiple forum recordings and from Open Mic 1 on the old forum up until she passed in December 2022.
A replacement for Sophie would have been impossible but when my wife received her discharge date from the recovery clinic, I promised her a new puppy. But tracking one down and having the right circumstances has been next to impossible but last week the stars aligned.
So on Saturday we picked up Shiloh (breeder and FKC name Bianca - which will be updated in due course) 12 weeks old, firsts jabs and 11 kilos. So like Sophie she is going to be a whopper !!
So some sleepless night for me while she adapts to the new environments and sleeping in a house and toileting in the courtyard but she has settled in very quickly.
GAS has taken on a different meaning, while we get all she needs to support her in her new forever home. Hence the FLA at the start NGSD ala New German Shepherd Dog though she is officially listed as Altdeutscher Schaferhund and not Berger Allemande !!
A few pics since she arrived in her new home.
Due to her teething on one of the wooden lounge tables, she was barred from The Madman Music Studio in case she started chomping on stable members. But has since been let in and play the guitars no heed. So alfresco practice was planned, so she gets used to her new musically life but to be honest its been controlled chaos since Saturday evening but as Marvin Gaye once sung āthereāll come a timeā . . . . . .
Reason to be cheerful ?
- A year on and my old lady is still kicking !
- Daughter here on hols - ex nurse who likely saved her mum by recognising the TBI closedown.
- Shiloh who from what we have seen will accelerate Jillās recovery.
Chapeau Ian Dury 
Probably more than I have posted all year so Iāll sign off.
Finally, Sophie at 14 weeks, Shiloh at 12 weeks, latter being a little crunched up and supported.
Laters peeps !! Happy days
(Shame this wasnāt the old style video diary chapter but needs must !)
Itās great to read that she already has such a positive impact on your life (with a little chaos here and there - itās pretty much the same as with toddlers, even though the latter are not as destructive while teething 
).
)